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Twenty-first century skills and academic student achievement: a case study of Provence Polytechnic Charter School Organization

TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY SKILLS AND ACADEMIC STUDENT
ACHIEVEMENT: A CASE STUDY OF PROVENCE POLYTECHNIC CHARTER
SCHOOLS ORGANIZATION
by
Juliet N. Fine
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC ROSSIER SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF EDUCATION
May 2010
Copyright 2010 Juliet N. Fine

The purpose of the study was to examine a school site that teaches and measures 21st Century skills while holding up to accountability standards set forth by both the state and nation through NCLB policy measures. Through this study, the following themes emerged:• Effective Professional Development operates from a common intellectual mission or theoretical framework and provides time for teacher reflection.• Positive school culture holds all students accountable to high academic standards and measures of achievement• Effective leadership implements school structures or protocols to maintain a consistent culture of accountability and transparency.• Professional communities of practice hold staff accountable to the common intellectual mission (values and beliefs) about the relationships amongst the individuals within the learning environment.; Provence Polytechnic Charter School Organization (PPCO), the school site organization for this qualitative study, prioritizes the themes and, in doing so, maintains a balance between teaching 21st Century skills and meeting state standardized measures of achievement. This study reexamines traditional measures of student achievement and challenges educators to define academic achievement within a context of a borderless global economy. This study explores common definitions for the abstract term 21st Century skills and creates a common framework encompassing Tony Wagner's (2008) survival skills for the 21st Century and Christopher Dede's (2006) work on performances and understandings.

TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY SKILLS AND ACADEMIC STUDENT
ACHIEVEMENT: A CASE STUDY OF PROVENCE POLYTECHNIC CHARTER
SCHOOLS ORGANIZATION
by
Juliet N. Fine
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC ROSSIER SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF EDUCATION
May 2010
Copyright 2010 Juliet N. Fine